The House at the End of the Road
A house can be built
inward, like a fist
warm and tight
and dangerous
and road can be seed
opening outward into the labyrinth
of becoming.
The house at the end of the road
doesn’t want to become
doesn’t want to change
but the seed can’t stop the
wheeling cogs of unfurling
proteins, can’t stop its
bright green fingers from
spooling
its only thought now
is limit, how to curl quietly
around the given constraints
and scaffold them into light.
And we think the future
waits for us.
About the Author: Jenna K Funkhouser is a Pacific Northwest based storyteller and poet. Her poetry has been published by The Ekphrastic Review, the St. Katherine Review, and Spiritus Journal, among others. Her second book of poetry, Bright Inhabited Lives, was published by Kelsay Books in June 2024.
Image Credit: Egon Schiele “House with Shingle Roof (Old House II)” (1915) Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
As It Ought To Be 